FM urges UN to take notice of delimitation of IIOK

Bilawal terms move 'sinister ploy to reduce Muslim representation'

ISLAMABAD:

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asked the United Nations Security Council to take immediate cognizance of the grave implications of the controversial illegal delimitation of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, describing it as India's sinister ploy to reduce the representation of Muslims.

The alarm was sounded as India decides to redraw electoral boundaries of the occupied valley, prompting fears that the move will effect demographic change, reduce Muslim representation and disempower the already disenfranchised community.

As part of Pakistan's ongoing efforts to internationally highlight the alarming situation in the IIOJK in the wake of India's illegal and unilateral actions on August 5, 2019, the foreign minister addressed a letter to the UN Security Council president and the UN secretary general on illegal "delimitation" exercise in the IIOJK by India.

Bilawal, in the letter, apprised them, in particular, of India's sinister ploy of reducing the representation of Muslims through the unlawful 'delimitation' exercise.

The foreign minister urged the UN Security Council to remind India that Jammu and Kashmir remained an internationally recognised dispute, adding that India should refrain from bringing about any illegal demographic changes in the occupied territory in contravention to international law, the Geneva conventions, and India's own obligations under the relevant UNSC resolutions.

He asked the UNSC to compel and counsel India to halt its human rights abuses against the people of IIOJK and cease forthwith the endemic political persecution and economic exploitation of the Kashmiris.

The foreign minister also asked the UNSC to prevail upon India to let the people of IIOJK determine their own future through a free and fair plebiscite under the United Nations auspices as enshrined in the Council's relevant resolutions.

He underscored that these illegal measures constituted a flagrant violation of international law, including the UN Charter and the relevant Security Council resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and were ipso facto illegal and null and void.

He also highlighted India's gross, systematic and widespread human rights violations in the IIOJK and drew particular attention to the ongoing Indian efforts to further marginalise, disempower and divide the beleaguered Kashmiri population.

The foreign minister noted that it was a shameless assault on the identity, fundamental rights of the people and culture of the IIOJK, and was designed to pave the way for installing yet another puppet government there that was pliant to BJP-RSS combine, and pandered to its "Hindutva" ideology.

He also underscored that under the garb of the inherently ill-intentioned process, India had attempted to carry out demographic engineering in the IIOJK in a bid to convert the Muslim majority constituencies into Hindu-majority ones."

Through the sham 'delimitation' exercise, it is obvious that India is aiming to speed up the process of demographic changes that it has already set in motion through measures such as doling out millions of domicile certificates, offering jobs, and putting up land in IIOJK for sale to non-Kashmiris, in complete disregard to the international law and relevant Geneva conventions," the foreign minister remarked.